426 



NATURE 



[March 2, 1893 



terminations will contribute to our better knowledge of the periodic 

 variables by furnishing the largest number of maxima or minima of 

 the largest number of stars, having especial regard to stars whose 

 characteristics are at present not very well known." The award 

 of four hundred dollars will be given for the " most thorough dis- 

 cussion of the rotation of the earth, with reference to the recently 

 discovered variations of latitude." The manuscript (which will 

 be returned to the author) is to be transmitted to some one of 

 the judges not later than March 31, 1895. 



For the award of these prizes the judges are Messrs. 

 Asaph Hall, Seth C. Chandler, and Lewis Boss. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The Liverpool Geographical Society has issued its first 

 annual report, which, although not showing a very cordial re- 

 ception of the new society by the public, is not without some 

 promise of future growth. The Earl of Derby is President, 

 there are twenty-two Vice-Presidents, a substantial Council, 

 and a staff of honorary officials. Staff- Commander E. C. 

 Dubois Phillips has been appointed Secretary. The second 

 year of the society was inaugurated by a lecture on the Dis- 

 covery of the Alps, by Mr. D. W. Freshfield, President of the 

 Alpine Club, and one of the Secretaries of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Socieiy. Other lectures have been arranged for, and 

 it is to be hoped that the membership of the society will rapidly 

 increase. 



The tenth German Geographentag is announced to meet 

 in Stuttgart on April 5, 6, and 7. The programme in- 

 cludes (i) The special geography of Wiirtemberg and there- 

 searches on the lake ot Constance ; (2) Recent geographical 

 investigations with special reference to desert phenomena ; (3) 

 Cartography ; (4) Economic or applied geography ; and (5) 

 School geography. An exhibition will be held at the same 

 time, mainly of objects illustrative of the geography of 

 "Wiirtemberg. 



Prof. Penck has a long paper in the March number of 

 the Geographical Jour-nal, describing in detail his scheme for a 

 map of the world on the scale of i : 1,000,000. The import- 

 ance of having maps of every country on one scale has long 

 been recognised by working geographers ; but, with the excep- 

 tion of the little atlas on gnomonic projection by the late R. A. 

 Proctor, we do not know of any effort having been made to 

 place such maps before the public. The minute scale of the 

 work referred to reduced its value to a minimum. Prof. Penck's 

 scheme is one of great magnitude. He would allocate the pro- 

 duction of the map to the Governments or public bodies of 

 each country. On this principle, 769 sheets would be required 

 to represent the land-surface of the globe, each sheet containing 

 5° square between the equator and 60°, and between 60° and 

 the poles 5° of latitude and 10° degrees of longitude. The 

 British Empire would be responsible for 222 sheets, Russia for 

 192, United States for 65, France 55, Scandinavia 54, China 

 45. Five countries would have from 20 to 30 sheets each, six 

 more would have over 10, and ten countries would require a 

 smaller number, Belgium, Switzerland, and Greece having 

 only one each. One advantage of the proposed scale is that it 

 corresponds within the limits of the shrinkage of paper with 

 the 16 miles to an inch Survey of India maps (i : 1013760) and 

 with the 25 versts to an inch Russian maps (l : 1050000). 



MONGOLIA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 



AT the meetirg of the Royal Geographical Society on 

 ■^^ Monday Mr. W. W codville Re ckhill gave an interesting 

 accountof a journey in Mongolia and Central Tibet. Leaving 

 Peking on December i, 1891, Mr. Rockhill travelled to the 

 frontier town of Kalgan, then, entering Mongolia, he passed 

 through the pasture-lands of the Ch'ahar Mongols. After a 

 few days spent at Kuei-hua Ch'eng, the traveller continued 

 westward, and crossing the Yellow kiver on the ice at Ho-k'on, 

 he crossed the Ordos Mongols country, and afterwards Alashan. 

 Again entering China proper the route led through Ning-hsia, 

 Lanchou, and Hsi-ning, the westernmost town in China, on the 

 high road to Tibet. On March 14 Mr. Rockhill left for Tibet 

 by an unexplored route, passing south of the Koko nor and 



NO. 1218, VOL. 47] 



along the foot of the mountains to the south side of the Ts'ai- 

 dam, making several excursions on the way, one of special 

 importance from the Mongol village of Shang to Tosu Nor to 

 determine by astronomical observations the position of this 

 sheet of water discovered by him in 1889. Mr. Rockhill's 

 party consisted originally of five Chinese, but one had to be 

 invalided home a few days after leaving Kumbum, and two 

 others deserted him at Shang. He was able to hire at this 

 place an old Chinese trader, and with these three men, assisted 

 for a while by a Mongol and then by a Tibetan guide, he 

 travelled till he reached China again in October, 1892. On 

 May 27 the final start for Tibet was made from the Naichi gol 

 in western Ts'aidam, and a general south-westerly direction 

 was followed until jfuly 7, when a point some 30 miles from 

 the north-west corner of the great central Tibetan lake, called 

 Tengri nor by the Mongols, was reached. Between the Naichi 

 gol and the Ts'aidam the party had to endure great hardships, 

 the great altitude ranging from 14,000 to 17,000 feet above sea- 

 level, terrible daily snow and hail-storms, fierce winds and 

 frequent absence of fuel, and towards the end starvation. The 

 route, moreover, led them through vast salt marshes, bogs, and 

 across numerous rivers, in which quicksands were frequently 

 found. The geographical results of this portion of the journey 

 were important, (i) The determination of the limits of the 

 basin of the Murus (the great Yang-Tzu Kiang of China) and 

 the discovery of the sources of the main branch of this river in 

 the snow-covered flanks of the great central Tibetan range of 

 mountains known as the Dangla. {2) The discovery of the eastern 

 limit of the lake-covered Central Asian plateau which becomes 

 some 600 miles west of the route Mr. Rockhill followed the Pamir, 

 but is in the section he crossed of it called Naktsang, and some- 

 times, though apparently erroneously, Chang T'ang or "Nor- 

 thern S'eppe." 



Game was scarce in the great part of this region, and so wild 

 that it could not be approached. 



On July 2 the last provisions were eaten, and from that date 

 to the 7th the party subsisted solely on tea. On the latter day 

 a small encampment of Tibetans was reached, and a little food 

 purchased. The next day a valley was entered dotted over 

 with tents ; it was the pasture lands of the Namru Tibetans 

 and Lh'asa governed territory. The headman refused to give 

 the party food unless Mr. Rockhill agreed to await the arrival 

 of the head chief, who would decide as to whether he should be 

 allowed to proceed southward, or be sent back to the north. 



After six days' discussion with the chief and several officials 

 from Lh'asa a compromise was effected ; and Mr. Rockhill, with 

 an escort of ten Tibetan soldiers, started eastward to reach the 

 frontier port of Nagchuka, on the highsroad to Lh'asa from the 

 Koko nor. 



On July 27 Mr. Rockhill crossed the Dangch'u and found 

 himself on the territory of Jyade, or " The Chinese Province," 

 which is governed by native chiefs appointed by the Chinese 

 Minister, resident at Lh'asa (or Lh'asa Amban), This im- 

 portant province was separated from Lh'asa by the Chinese in 

 the seventeenth century, in view of the enmity existing between 

 its people, who profess the Bonbo religion, a form of the devil 

 worship or shamanism, though now mixed up with lamaism to 

 such an extent, that it is hardly distinguishable from it, and the 

 followers of the yellow and red sects of Buddhism living on 

 Lh'asa soil. 



Passing to the south of the city of Ch'amdo, to which town 

 Mr. Rockhill, like his predecessor. Captain Bower, was refused 

 admittance, the high road to China was reached at Pungde (two 

 stages south of Ch'amdo), and from this point to China a Chinese 

 escort was given the traveller, and he was able to enjoy (!) all 

 the luxuries of Chinese travel. Stopping at Draya, at Gartok, 

 Bat'ang and Lit'ang, Ta-chien-lu, in Ssii-ch'uan, was reached on 

 October 2. Here, on the eastern border of Tibet the journey 

 was practically ended, for, though several thousand miles still 

 separated Mr. Rockhill from the seaboard, they could be 

 travelled in comfort and rapidity. Leaving Ta-chien-lu on 

 October 5, he was in Shangai on the 29th, exactly eleven 

 months from the time he had left it. "In that time I had 

 travelled about 8000 miles, surveyed 3417, and during the geo- 

 graphically important part of the journey crossed sixty-nine 

 passes, all of them rising over 14,000 feet above sea-level, and 

 not a few reached 18,000. I had taken series of sextant obser- 

 vations at a hundred points along the road, determined one 

 hundred and forty-six altitudes by the boiling point of water, 

 j taken three hundred photographs, and made important ethno- 



